Flame On
"Flame On" is the 2nd episode of Fantasia. Plot A huge fire is burning a small store down in a flashback. The flames are thick and full of toxic black smoke. A huge crowd of frightened citizens are stood outside, at a safe distance, as a reporter stands between them and the building with a camera man. “We’re back with breaking news. A deadly fire has savaged a small grocery store in downtown Fantasia. We have no reports on any deaths yet and it is unknown how many civilians were insi…” the woman reports, however, she’s suddenly stopped by an explosion coming from inside the store. She, the camera man and the crowd all flee in terror. However, they all stop and look up into the sky as one woman shouts out “It’s Rocky!” Everyone watches him as he flies down and uses a powerful beam emitting from his horn to extinguish the fire. They all clap at their hero and several young people shout out to him to give his autograph or marry them. Rocky ignores the pleased crowd and enters the burned down shop. To his horror everyone inside is burnt to a crisp…totally unrecognisable. All but one young man. A confused Rocky trots over to the young man and notices that he doesn’t have a single burn on him, not even a drop of sweat. Rocky smiles and tells the boy to take his horn. The boy grabs it and they both teleport away. Joanna/Aqua, Josh/Ignis, Joe/Aer, Rocky and Ali/Cor are all sat in a living area on cushions and sofas surrounding Vita…the man they just created. He simply sits in silence, staring down at the ground making no movement whatsoever. Aqua introduces herself by her real name, but the naked man just sits there. Ben/Terra return to the group with some clothing he created out of leaves and tries to stand Vita up to get him dressed. Vita willingly stands up, but doesn’t seem to acknowledge Ben being there. Rocky asks the stranger if he knows who he is…or if he knows anything. Vita, who is slowly getting dressed by Ben, looks to the dog-unicorn and stares at him for a moment. Josh and Joanna seem creeped out by this and share an awkward glance. Joe asks the man if he has a name, so the stranger slowly turns his head to him and stares. An uncomfortable Joe vanishes into a cloud and reappears next to Josh and Joanna. “He’s got to have a name” Ali states, but everyone shrugs. “Well, we should name him!” she says gleefully. Joanna ponders for a moment and suggests naming him Edward. Josh laughs at this name and suggests Liam, as it’s his favourite name. “How about we let the new girl pick” Rocky suggests. Everyone turns to Ali, expecting a great name to come out of her mouth. “Rena” she suggests. Everyone is left in shock. “The fuck..?” Joe asks. Ali explains that she got the idea from her uncle’s old car, a Renault Clio, which he used to call Rena. Everyone is left awkward and then Rocky steps forward to Vita, smiling. “Welcome to Fantasia, Rena”. A short while later, as Joanna, Joe, Ali and Rocky attempt to get a reaction from Rena, Josh walks through the halls of the mansion. He eventually arrives at Ben’s garden and enters without knocking. An annoyed Ben tells him that was rude and he should learn some manners. Josh apologizes and asks for a favour. “What do you want?” Ben asks with a slight tone of bitchiness in his voice. “A plant” Josh explains. Ben appears intimidated and frightened for his plants “What for…?” he nervously asks. “A test” Josh says bluntly. Ben asks him what he means but Josh just demands a plant. Sensing the importance, Ben reluctantly conjures up a small rose in his hand. Before handing it to Josh he warns him to be careful with it. “Sure, sure” Josh nods. The second the rose touches Josh’s hand it bursts into flames. Ben is horrified at the sight of the dying rose and stumbles back, crying, knocking over several other plants. He cries even more at this and calls Josh a monster. “This is even worse than the first time! You did this on purpose! How could you harm an innocent flower!!” Ben roars. A guilty looking Josh gives a look of sympathy to Ben before leaving the garden with the burnt rose. In a flashback, Josh is in the mansion, practicing his powers with Rocky. He flicks his fingers, hoping to spark a small flame…but nothing happens. Rocky urges him to think; to imagine the fire appearing in his hand. “I am trying!” a frustrated Josh growls. Josh continues to flick his fingers, harder and harder and faster and faster. Nothing happens again so an enraged Josh stomps his foot on the ground. The stomp causes a giant line of fire to run around the house. Rocky shields himself with a bubble emitting from his horn. The fire trails upstairs and leads straight into Ben’s garden, setting all of the plants alight. Ben lets out a cry of horror and Josh cowers awkwardly. Rocky smiles, impressed at the power his new student holds. Josh returns to the main living area, where Rocky, Ali, Joe and Joanna are still trying to get a reaction from Rena. He arrives with the rose, explaining he wanted to see if the stranger is the real deal and if he can do what he’s supposed to. Josh holds the rose out in front of Rena, who slowly grabs it. He looks at it with confusion. He slowly moves the rose closer to his face, about to do something. Everyone leans in with suspense, wondering what’s going to happen…but they’re disappointed when they see Rena drop the dead rose to the ground. They all sigh. “I don’t understand…what were we waiting for?” Ali wonders. Rocky explains that Rena/Vita is life, so he should have been able to bring the rose back to life. Ali notices Rena, who appears to be just an empty shell of a human showing no emotion whatsoever, “Well…look at him. How can you expect him to be life when he doesn’t even know how to live?” The heroes all look at each other, realizing the young girl is right. As the heroes ponder over this conundrum, they’re all suddenly interrupted by the loud sound of an alarm that they all seem to recognise. Josh, Joe and Joanna all check their wrists as there is an incoming call. It’s Josh’s wristwatch that is ringing “It’s HQ” he announces to everyone. He answers it and a hologram of a pretty ginger girl pops up. She’s dressed in a suit and it’s clear she’s in a top secret building with masses of computers and scientists around. “What’s wrong, Liz” he asks. “Ignis we need you” she states seriously. “Come on, I thought I told you to call me Josh” he smiles. Liz stays professional and begins explaining that an unknown identity is terrorising the city, but leads have told her that he’s best for the job. “I’ll be right on it” he tells her. Liz thanks him and informs him that she’ll send coordinates ASAP. Once she hangs up, Josh turns to Ali and smiles. “You’re coming with me”. Ali is sat on Josh’s back as they fly through the sky above Fantasia. “Mind the tail” Josh yells to her over the roar of the wind. Confused, she looks around and realizes that Josh’s legs have turned into fire, giving the illusion of a tail of fire. She shuffles higher up his body to avoid being burned. When she’s comfortable, she asks Josh why he brought her along. “Whoever we’re going to be up against today will be no match for Death. I just wanted to show you what we’re up against.” Ali gulps with fear and then points down to the ground “Look, there!” she screams with horror. Josh looks down to the ground to see dozens of human sized spiders rampaging through the streets of the city, devouring anyone or anything that gets in their way. They land atop of a roof and look around for who they’re up again. “Araneae…” Josh gasps as he points Ali in a direction. They both end up looking at a beautiful woman dressed and merged in black. She has spider legs coming from her back, seemingly alive. She is the Spider Queen. Ali almost vomits at the disgusting sight of the woman. “Who is that…?” she wonders. “She’s a mean bitch, that’s what she is. She goes by many names…Araneae, Spider Queen… but you can just call her Valentina”. Josh tells Ali to stay hidden on the roof while he sorts out Araneae. She agrees and then hides behind a vent. Josh’s legs turn into fire and then he flies closer to the bad guy. “ARANEAE!!” he yells furiously. Val looks over to Josh and smile evilly “Hello…Ignis”. A pissed off Josh tells her not to call him that and orders her to stop the chaos she’s causing. Val simply smiles and asks why she’d do that. “Unless you want to become roast tarantula you’d be wise to listen to me” he growls. Val laughs this off but is suddenly stopped by a strange sensation. “Fear…” she mutters. Josh asks what she’s talking about. “Fear…I sense fear” she smiles. “If you think I fear you then you’re not just an evil bitch, but you’re a dumb evil bitch” he scoffs. “No, not you,” she shrugs “…her” she smiles, pointing at the rooftop. In a strange tongue, Val orders her Spiderlings to kill the girl that is hiding on the roof. The spiders stop their rampage and in unison ascend to the top of the building. Josh attempts to fight them off as best he can with balls of fire, but he’s stopped when a web flies past his face, narrowly missing him. He turns back to Val who smiles tauntingly. Meanwhile, Ali, who is cowering behind the vent is suddenly startled when a fang from one of the spiderlings pierces through the metal, narrowly missing her head. She stands up in fear as three large spiders surround her. Down on the ground, Josh and Val are fighting, shooting fireballs and webs at each other. "Give up, Araneae, you're just going to lose!". Val laughs evilly and continues shooting more webs at her foe. This keeps happening for a while until Josh finally hits Val with a ball. Her arm is burned badly and she kneels with pain. As he's about to give her the finishing blow, Ali's screams are head on the roof. Josh turns away from Val and begins flying to Ali's aid. He reaches Ali and manages to kill the spiderlings with his fire...but more just keep coming. He keeps fighting them off until he's suddenly hit by a large web that wraps itself around him. Ali screams in horror as death is certain now. Noticing no more spiderlings have arrived, she rushes to Josh's aid and attempts to unwrap him. As she struggles to do this, a large shadow towers over them. "Look out!" Josh yells. Ali turns around to see a giant spider...the spider queen herself has transformed into this horrific beast. "Time to put the flame out!" She echoes victoriously. She opens her fangs and swings down, but Ali, who clutches onto Josh with fear, suddenly lets out a burst of bright light that blinds the spider queen and causes her to cower away, screeching. As the spider queen flees using slings of web to pull her away, Josh and Ali sigh with relief and the new girl proceeds to unwrap the hero. Back at the mansion, Josh and Ali arrive, announcing that its a job well done. Everyone claps and cheers for them both, but Ali, clearly annoyed that she nearly died, steps away from the heroes. "I almost died you freaks! I almost died and you're all clapping?! I didn't sign up for this!!". "You didn't sign up for anything" Rocky points out. "You can leave any time you want. Go if you want. But we need you...and if you don't help us then we're all going to be dead." Ali is silent for a moment, realizing that she has to stay and help, but before she can reply, she collapses to the ground. Everyone runs over to the unconscious girl and Ben lifts up her sleeve to reveal a cut on her arm that is infected with a green goo. "She was bitten..." Josh gasps. "What by?!" Rocky asks frantically, ready to cure her. "It was Araneae and her spiderlings...one of them must've bitten her...now fix her, hurry!" Josh panics. Rocky sighs and explains that he cannot as each of Araneae's spiderlings have a unique venom...so to know what will cure her is almost impossible. As Ali begins to spasm and foam at the mouth, Rena/Vita, looks up from the living area. He stands up and slowly walks towards Ali. He instinctively grabs her arm and licks it...continuously. Everyone just watches. He licks her arm over and over until suddenly the wound is gone. Ali stops shaking and foaming and she falls into a gentle sleep. Rena gives out a little smile and then walks back to the living area to sit down on the ground again. We see tall black high heels walking across a shiny stone black floor. They belong to Araneae. She walks up to a large black throne and then kneels before the almighty villain...Mortem. His imp is stood beside him, twitching. She bows down before him and announces in a sad/frustrated tone that she was unsuccessful in defeating any of the heroes. Mortem snarls at her and asks what happened. "I almost had one of them. Ignis. I was going to deal the killing blow to him but this girl got in the way. I don't know who she is, I've never seen her before!" Val explains angrily. "Well why didn't you kill her too?!" Mortem roars. "I tried! But... she had powers. A power far greater than anything I've seen before". Mortem pauses for a moment and thanks his employee for her information. "...but sadly, you failed me" he adds. Araneae becomes highly worried and almost begins crying, "Please, please, I'm sorry! I won't fail you again!" she begs. "You failed me. I have many others like you who will not fail me. You're disposable" he smiles. Val cries as Mortem uses his magic to raise her up. He begins to pluck the spider legs off her back, one by one, and she screams in pain. He then rips of her left arm, then her right arm, then her left leg, then her right light. Val roars with pure agony but this comes to an end as her head is ripped off. The body and the legs suddenly crash to the ground as Mortem releases them from his magic. The imp simply laughs at this horrific torture. "Imp! Find me this girl. Do not fail me". Category:Episodes